U.S. International Broadcasting to Cuba, Latin America & Russia: Internal Assessments

The Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), which is funded by the U.S. Government through the presidentially appointed Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), was established in 1990 to oversee the operations of Radio and TV Marti, two broadcast services that provide Spanish-language news, features, and entertainment programs to Cuba. In addition to radio and television, OCB has an Internet site, all of which are known collectively as the Martis. The Voice of America (VOA) Latin America Division broadcasts in Spanish to all Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, except Cuba, and in Creole to Haiti and other Creole-speaking Caribbean countries. Employing radio, television, social media, and Web sites, the division seeks to engage with the people of the hemisphere, in particular its growing population of young people. Russian language broadcasting by U.S. Government international broadcast entities has been a priority since the early days of the Cold War. The Voice of America (VOA) Russian Service, a Federal broadcasting entity, has provided programming to Russia and other former Soviet republics continuously since 1947. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), a private, non-profit grantee corporation, which has been broadcasting in Russia since 1953, receives Federal funding from the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). This book discusses all of these broadcasting entities and provides internal assessments of each.